A Tesla Motors car operating under autopilot collided with a bus in northern Germany, but the electric car maker says a collision was unavoidable because the bus swerved into the vehicle's lane.
German police said the incident occurred on Wednesday in the town of Ratzeburg.
The car's driver had told Tesla after the crash he was using autopilot when the incident occurred, a Tesla spokeswoman said on Thursday.
"We have spoken to our customer, who confirmed that autopilot was functioning properly and that his use of autopilot was unrelated to the accident," Tesla said in a statement.
Reuters could not confirm independently what the car driver told Tesla and the circumstances that caused the bus to swerve.
Tesla's autopilot, introduced last October, helps drivers steer and stay in lanes and is intended to assist, but not replace, drivers.
It has been the focus of intense scrutiny since it was revealed in July that a Tesla Model S driver was killed while using the technology in a May 7 collision with a truck in Florida in the US.
Since then there have been reports of accidents involving Teslas, the drivers of which were using autopilot. They include a fatal incident in China, but it is not clear what role, if any, the driving assistance system played.
There have also been reports of serious accidents prevented because of autopilot.
Police in Ratzeburg said in a statement on Thursday the 50-year-old driver from Brandenburg drove into the back of a Danish tour bus as it was returning to the inside lane after overtaking. Police said they planned to investigate "why (autopilot) did not work".
The Tesla driver was slightly injured but none of the 29 bus passengers was hurt, the statement added.
Tesla denied autopilot was at fault, saying the bus swerved into the car's lane and side-swiped the Tesla, making a collision "unavoidable", the spokeswoman said.
"We can only do so much to prevent an accident," she said, adding Tesla was in contact with German police.
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